Building Community: Synergy and Empowerment through Staff Development and Marketing in a Small Rural Academic Library

Abstract

This paper presents two collaborative programs at a small academic library that leverage the insights, engagement, and interests of our most important asset: our staff. Two new library committees, the Staff Training Advisory Group and the Marketing Team, extended planning, accountability, and partnerships to paraprofessional staff members. The onset and associated activities of these two committees yielded not only direct results in terms of staff training programs and marketing initiatives, but also resulted in creating a more collaborative culture and shared purpose in our library. This paper examines how the overlap of these two committees created a convergence that fostered excitement about the library, interest in improving library roles, and furthering library initiatives. By working together, and with our university community, we developed solid, popular programs in addition to cultivating a more intentional, thoughtful, and inclusive approach to our work and, ultimately, to supporting our university community.